Dreaming Into You: Reverse-DTI and Double Reverse-DTI

I (Shawn) incubate a dream in which I will experience a particular type of DTI experience. After falling asleep I find myself in a strange landscape, dark and gloomy, inhabited by an indigenous people. Steep hills dot the landscape, each with a ruined structure, perhaps an abandoned villa or

even a tomb, on its top. My guide leads me to one of these structures, and inside we find a class studying the rites of ancient gods. I am told that I should not be there because I do not yet have the power or experience to understand these rites. I feel powerless and unsure. Suddenly, I feel a change inside myself, a flow of power arising from being possessed by the gods themselves…

The Reverse-DTI

The defining feature of the Reverse-DTI, compared to a standard DTI, is that it is the model who associates into the modeler, rather than the modeler associating into the model. This Reverse-DTI has been in existence for thousands of years in many traditional cultures around the world, often thought of as ‘spirit possession’, a subject that I (Jess) have studied as an anthropologist. As Christianity, particularly Catholicism, spread through Europe, there was a transition in culture, and the practice of spirit possession became highly taboo. As a result, ‘possession’ by a god or spirit became

‘pathologized,’ and the ‘possessed’ lost the honored position within society that they would have previously enjoyed.

Let’s revisit a couple of historical examples in which spirit possession was viewed quite differently than we originally discussed in the earlier chapter on the history of DTI.

In ancient Greece it was believed that writers, musicians, and other artists were successful because they had ‘daemons’ who lived in the walls of their homes. A daemon is not the malevolent spirit of modern myth, but rather a creative spirit that acted through the artist. These daemons would ‘possess’

the artist and it was this possession that generated the artist’s creativity.

One of the ways of understanding this is through the lens of deep trance identification. Instead of a person ‘possessing’ the model to absorb and learn the model’s skills, the model ‘possesses’ the modeler in order to manifest and use those skills.

With the rise of the church, daemons became demons, and ‘possession’ became subject to exorcisms.

But outside this Western view of possession, being the work of ‘demons’, there is a rich and therapeutic tradition related to possession. In many non-Western cultures, Spirit possession is still linked with gods, goddesses and spirits that are summoned to heal individuals and entire communities. Possession becomes a means through which the human is transformed and has direct experience of the divine. In these traditions, which remain alive and well in many cultures, the possessed becomes a conduit of change for the entire community. The deity inside of the individual is able to solve the individual’s problems and concerns, and is also able to give advice to the community.

Consider the Tamil festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia, as an example of this in contemporary experience.. Each year devotees of the Hindu god, Murugan, participate in a three-day festival that culminates in the ‘possession’ of several devotees by the god. During this time, Murugan can act through the devotees, giving them the ability to withstand intense pain, to heal issues in the devotee’s life, and to provide blessings for the community.

I had initially looked at the Thaipusam festival from an academic perspective. From this western academic perspective, the intense religiosity of devotees causes them to experience an altered state of consciousness, one in which they believe themselves to be gods. But when I looked at this from the point of view of a hypnotist, I thought, “Wow! This is deep trance identification in reverse,” rather than the human associating into the god, the god associates into the human. Academia did not have the language or frames of reference to fully understand this process.

Modern Western Example of Reverse-DTI

When you look at advertisements for weight loss supplements or programs, they often show ‘before’

and ‘after’ photos. The ‘before’ photo shows a chubby or fat person, while the ‘after’ is a slimmer, perhaps even a super-fit, person. In fact, many of these pictures actually depict people who were initially super-fit, but then had some kind of injury or other issue that caused a lapse in their training regimen. No longer able to exercise, but, continuing to eat their usual diet, resulted in them becoming overweight. This is the putative ‘before’ photograph. As soon as they recover from their injuries, these people are able to lose weight really fast, because their body, their metabolism, their emotional states, their perspectives on food and exercise, their self-image, and their thoughts are those of a slim and healthy person. As soon as they go back to their normal exercise routine they very quickly shed the excess pounds, revealing the muscular person underneath, the ‘after’ photo!

Therefore what you have is an athletic, muscular person temporarily caught in a fat body! This is a naturally occurring double Reverse-DTI. It’s like the statue of David; the story goes that when Michelangelo carved the statue he believed David was already present in the block of marble.

Michelangelo’s only job was to reveal the David within the marble.

Future-Self DTI as a Reverse-DTI

A study was published in 2013 that looked at the success stories of people who lost weight, and the coaches, hypnotists, and doctors who helped them achieve their goals. What they found was that the factor most often associated with success was a specific type of future pace in which clients would imagine becoming their future self having achieved their goals. As this future self, they experienced the habits and life of someone who was more slender and healthy, and maintained a healthy lifestyle.

They then took that experience back with them as they reassociated back into themselves.

This technique (or variations of it) has been one of the most successful mental tools in weight loss.

You will see that it is a ‘future-self’ DTI but it can also be thought of as being ‘possessed’ by your own future self.

Parts Installation

A distilled version of the Reverse-DTI can take place in the context of hypnosis (or NLP), when

‘installing’ a new part. For a more complete discussion of ‘parts’ and ‘parts installation’ you can read

Richard Bandler’s excellent book on the subject, Reframing. It is not clear to the authors why ‘parts installation’ never became as popular in hypnosis or NLP as Reimprinting or the Six Step Reframe (a form of Parts Reframing). It’s relative disuse might be attributable to the perceived perception that the technique had the potential to fragment risk of fragmenting personalities.

Parts Installation is not Multiple Personalities

Whatever attraction Parts Installation might have held to hypnotists, interest in the technique waned, possibly as a result of psychiatric interest in multiple personalities. Called Multiple Personality Disorder, then later Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), multiple personality diagnoses sky-rocketed from the 1970’s into the 1980’s and ‘90’s, from 100 or so to tens of thousands.

This unprecedented increase in cases almost certainly resulted from the publication of the book Sybil in 1974. The book and subsequent movie describes a woman afflicted with DID. The book and movie offered both psychiatrists and their patients a pre-packaged experience of DID that they could (and DID) model.

Clearly, installing a new ‘part’ is very different from installing a new identity. A part is a specific way of thinking, feeling and acting in a particular context. These thoughts, feelings and behaviors may, and usually are, supported by an appropriate set of beliefs and values. In fact, it is fair to say that classical hypnosis often seeks to ‘install’ a new ‘part’, for example a ‘non-smoker part’ that engages in more positive and productive thinking patterns, feelings and behaviors than the ‘smoking part’. In addition, the non-smoking part will be supported by healthy values and empowering beliefs about the client’s ability to quit. There should, at the same time, also be no inappropriate ‘separation’ between the installed part and the rest of the individual. In fact, the hypnotist should go to great lengths to integrate the new part into the client, and into the client’s overall personality.

Reverse-DTI as Parts Installation

Installing a new part (for example, the non-smoking part), using deep trance and direct suggestion, is a great way of creating change, and also very interesting when considered from the frame of a Reverse-DTI. Think about the typical client who comes into the hypnotist’s office. Many clients come with the idea that in hypnosis, they will ‘go to sleep’ and their feelings and behaviors will change automatically. They do not expect to have to ‘work’ for it. The classical approach of deep trance and direct suggestion can be very powerful, especially for clients who are very ‘externally framed, meaning clients who look to others to validate their experiences and actions. In this case the hypnotist’s suggestions result in the installation of a new non-smoking ‘part’, and the hypnotist

‘possesses’ the client at least long enough for the ‘part’ to be installed. This type of classical hypnosis thus becomes a type of Reverse-DTI, in an expanded sense of the term.

Just as in any DTI, the new part is, in reality, already a part of the client. It is a representation of aspects to which the client wants more conscious access. Whether using deep trance and direct suggestion, or DTI techniques, we are simply better defining the part, and then integrating that part

into the client-as-a-whole-person.

The Double Reverse-DTI

As we have seen, within an appropriate cultural context, and with well-prescribed and ecologically sound expectations, the ‘possession’ of the individual by a god or muse (the Reverse-DTI) can have very beneficial results, just as a careful and ecological parts installation and integration can also produce positive change.

However, without an appropriate cultural context a Reverse-DTI installing of a new ‘personality’

could be far from ecological, especially from a Western perspective. This is one reason why we developed the Double Reverse-DTI, where the client first associates into the model, then the client-as-model associates into the client (rather than the model associating directly into the client). The process itself is very easy. We will lay out a full protocol at the end of the chapter, but the essence of using Double Reverse-DTI entails the following considerations:

Establish the specific context in which the modeler would like to feel and act differently.

After inducing trance, the modeler is introduced to the model and asks for permission to DTI.

The modeler dissociates from herself, and moves into third position.

The modeler now associates into the model and experiences acting as the model, taking on the model’s beliefs, values and skills. As usual, the hypnotist only leads the modeler into experiencing values, beliefs and skills that are appropriate, ecological and complementary to the modeler, based on full ecology checks. The hypnotist also resolves any conflicts using the visual squash or Mind to resolve the conflict.

Now, staying as the model, the modeler is going to associate back into himself or herself, without returning to third position in between. The modeler will step back into ‘you’, but this time as the model.

For example, suppose I (Jess) am the modeler, and I’m going to DTI with the superhero Wolverine.

I’ve checked ecology at the conscious and unconscious level, and made sure my values are aligned with those of Wolverine. I have a specific context in which I want to experience change and use Wolverine’s abilities. I have one or more representations of Wolverine (an Event Matrix), and I have in mind everything that I would like to get from being Wolverine.

I now dissociate from myself (Jess) and then associate into Wolverine. I have the experience of acting and feeling as Wolverine. Now staying as Wolverine I step back into me, Jess. I will not go to third position this time, but step as Wolverine back into Jess.

Next I will step into the context in which I want the change, but this time as Wolverine, in Jess’s body. I will experience a blending of physical capabilities, resources, values and beliefs, Wolverine-as-Jess, as well as the changes in thoughts and behaviors that come with that. Jess-as-Wolverine has associated into me and now I will enter the context and feel and act as Wolverine acting through Jess.

The lines between Wolverine and Jess become blended so that the resourceful states and behaviors can express themselves and be integrated, along with values and beliefs.

As we have said before, DTI has a tremendously generative component, which means we can do this process to build skills without necessarily ‘addressing a problem.’ Say I (Jess) would like more confidence public speaking; I’m not afraid of speaking in public, but I feel I could use a little more confidence.

In this case I would go to the context of public speaking, maybe sitting in a training room with a class in front of me. Next I’m going to DTI into Wolverine, and experience the feelings, states, and values that are going to be useful and that are in alignment with my own.

Now, as Wolverine I’m not going to go back to third position; I’m going to stay associated into Wolverine and as Wolverine I’m going to step right back into Jess. Now I’m going to experience teaching the class in this way, Jess-as-Wolverine becoming Jess.

To conclude the Double Reverse-DTI we are going to go through a number of future paces, allowing for multiple iterations of the resource process. We invite the modeler to go to a number of different times and places where the context and trigger are present, so that they can practice acting as the blending of themselves and the model. We may invite them to go to the ‘next time and place’ where they will need these skills and experience having them, then to go to another time and place. We do this a number of times as it gives the modeler’s neurology a number of opportunities to practice in this new way.

Finally, complete integration takes place as I realize Wolverine was always a part of me, and always will be. After all, whether we are speaking about Jess or Wolverine, it is really all ‘me’ at the end of the day. I have now integrated that part of me that is represented by Wolverine.

One of the useful things to keep in mind in this form of DTI is that it takes away any physical advantages the model has. If I associate into Wolverine, and into the physicality of Wolverine, then I have the strength of Wolverine and the claws of Wolverine, and so on. I would have all the things that you could say are sources, or even ‘crutches’, for his sense of confidence. When I as Wolverine associate back into Jess, I no longer have that physical strength and the claws. Wolverine has to adapt to the physical qualities of being Jess, as well as to the cultural behaviors of being Jess.

In other DTI methods the client is stepping into the experience of the model. This means they take on the physical traits and responses of the model as well as all of the other beliefs, values, and so on. If I were to step into Wolverine and then go give a speech, I would unconsciously also be taking on the physicality of Wolverine for better or worse. But in the Double Reverse-DTI, Wolverine has to play

by my physical rules, and I can become curious about how my states and behaviors would be interpreted by Wolverine, instead of me stepping into Wolverine and interpreting his states and behaviors.

This is all about where one places emphasis in the DTI frame.

To review the process: the modeler chooses the specific model and specific context. We next use perceptual positions to guide the modeler in dissociating from himself, and associating into the model. The modeler will now experience the specific context as the model. Then, instead of dissociating again, the subject as model associates back into himself or herself. She or he will now experience the same context as the model associated into the modeler, interacting with the world in ways that conform to the modeler's physicality and sensitivities. In this way, full integration takes place.

Double Reverse-DTI for Healing

This approach can be applied in many different types of healing, as well as in generative contexts.

For example, when a patient is sick, he can go into trance and find a future version of himself who has healed and is living a healthy life. He can then associate into that self and then associate back into the current self as the future, healthy self. Just think of all of the information and learnings that future self is introducing to the present self. The unconscious mind knows how to heal, and it knows how to learn how to heal. This pattern allows for that deeper part of the patient to begin piecing together the best states and behaviors to help the current self heal more quickly. The indirect implication here is that the patient is healing and there will be a time in the near future when they are once again healthy.

Another approach is to do the Double Reverse-DTI using as the model someone who has recovered from the illness.

(Obviously any hypnosis for healing should only be done by a medical professional or by a qualified hypnotist with appropriate medical referral and subject to the legal regulations of the appropriate jurisdiction.)